


depths

by supersalamander



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/F, FLARP, Post-Game, also death and abuse, terezi works through some stuff in space, there will definitely be more characters but theyre not there yet, tw for blood and violence but not super graphic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-13 02:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29394948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supersalamander/pseuds/supersalamander
Summary: terezi sets off to find vriska
Relationships: Terezi Pyrope/Vriska Serket
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	1. prologue

The thing about the depths of space is that they’re lonely. Not that where you’re going is empty, of course. But the lost souls of your friends, echoing forever in memory, aren’t exactly the best company. If anything, they make it a bit worse.

You departed the new Earth three days ago on a mission to find Vriska. You know she’s out there in the Furthest Ring. You have to find her. You have to. Vriska is… well, a lot of things. Your childhood friend, your FLARP partner, your enemy-turned-moirail. You need her more than anything. More than she needs you. Whatever. You’ll have time to work all these things out. Once you find her.

You carry on, flying through the vastness of space. It’s deathly quiet out here. You try humming quietly, but the sound becomes lost in the void. Silence never really got to you before, but this one does. The quiet of the forest you grew up in was nothing like this. There was always some sign of life. But out here, there’s nothing. You can’t hear or feel a thing in the vastness, nor smell and taste. All you can do is move forward, tracing in your head the path through the Ring you carefully marked out.

But then, you do hear something. Voices, faintly. Distorted so that you can’t tell who they are, but they’re there. You can feel in the air the energy coming from a dream bubble. It tingles slightly, pulsing through the space. You approach the source, pressing your hand against the bubble’s outer wall. You can feel hairline fissures in its smooth exterior, plasma beginning to leak through, but it seems relatively intact, as far as you can tell. Could Vriska be in here?

You decide to enter.


	2. chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vriska and Terezi FLARP for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings for discussion of blood, violence, and death

“Terezi, we don’t need a strategy. We’ll just figure it out as we go along!” Vriska exclaims, straightening her coat. She’d asked Kanaya to make it special, along with Terezi’s clothes. She perches a pirate’s hat atop her choppy self-cut hair and grins. “Anyway, you know I’m lucky, Rezi! We won’t need any sort of plan.”

Terezi grumbles. “Are you sure? Shouldn’t we know what we’re doing? There are a million ways it could go wrong, and I don’t just want to leave it up to chance! I mean, we’ve never done this before!” 

“It’ll be fine! Nothing can stop Marquise Spinneret Mindfang and the Neophyte Redglare! Nothing!” She brandishes her dice, the famed Fluorite Octet. “They’ll rue the day they met us!” She laughs, flashing her fangs. 

“Yeah, alright,” replies Terezi. There’s no stopping her when she’s like this. She’s tried. 

The battle itself is mostly a blur. The girls fight, hard as they can. The opponents keep coming, practically faster than they can be dispatched, but a skillful slash of Terezi’s swords and a lucky roll of Vriska’s dice fend most of them off. It helps that most of these kids are far less skilled than even a pair of newcomers. The Marquise and Neophyte make quick work of most opponents, leaving them to run off, flapstractions flashing their defeat. 

That is, until the girls are cornered. A trio of older kids, seven or so sweeps old, surround the two young trolls. Terezi’s swords are knocked aside, clattering against the deck as they skid. They back up to the railing of their ship. 

“Looks like you’re done for!” cries one opponent, a tall oliveblood clutching a curved silver knife, “This isn’t a game for silly little wigglers, you know!”

One is not supposed to actually kill in FLARP. It’s allowed, of course, but it isn’t essential. These three trolls could win without the heroines dying. But they clearly don’t plan on it. 

Terezi and Vriska glance at each other. Neither knows what to do. Could they jump? No, of course not. They’re not seadwellers. The ocean is dangerous, with its monsters and currents. It definitely would be worse than whatever these trolls are about to do. 

There’s really only one option less. Skill and strategy are all out the window. All hope rests on the handful of dice Vriska clutches tightly in her palm. The corners of the Octet dig into her palm, but she doesn’t care. She can’t lose them now. 

She has to be strong. She has to win. There is no other option. Mindfang wouldn’t lose, and so neither would Vriska. She holds her head high and 

rolls

the

dice. 

They scatter across the wooden planks of the deck. All of the trolls watch, enrapt, as the dice stop one by one. 

Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. 

The girls hold their breaths as the last die slows, teetering one one corner. 

Two.

A great flash of blue light. A tremendous bang. 

Vriska holds a pair of swords with straight narrow blades, just like those Terezi had lost. Unlike Terezi’s dragons, though, these have grips in the shape of spiders. They’re actually shockingly similar to Redglares dual blades, and Terezi wonders if Mindfang had these made special, like some sort of last laugh. 

This is not important. There will be time for history once the girls make it out alive. If they do. 

It seems like time stands still. The dice were rolled but moment ago, but it seems like an eternity. No one moves. 

The girls glance at each other once more. Vriska tosses a blade to Terezi. And they attack. The blades cut through chitinous troll skin like butter, whatever that is. 

The details of the fight are unclear. It’s hard for a child to remember these things when so much is happening at once. It’s all just blood and gore and flashes of steel. When all is said and done, the three aggressors are dead. The heroines are victorious. 

“Well, looks like we won!” exclaims Terezi. 

“See, I told you!” Vriska shouts. But she doesn’t quite feel like celebrating. It’s not that she isn’t glad to have won. Of course she is! She’s Vriska Serket and no one would expect any less. It’s just that now, she has to do her job. 

She has to feed her lusus. 

She didn’t like these trolls. She hated them, in fact. But that doesn’t make taking their corpses home to a ravenous spider is easy. 

But she has to be strong. Just like Mindfang. 

“What do we do now?” Terezi asks, gesturing to the bodies. 

“Leave them, I think,” Vriska lies, “I think the game will take care of it.” She doesn’t want Terezi to know that she has to take them home to be eaten. It’s not like she’d understand, anyway. Her lusus is just some egg. She doesn’t have a duty to fulfill. 

Terezi begins to leave the ship. Vriska hangs back for just a moment. She stares at the bodies for a moment before storing each one carefully in her sylladex. 

She sprints to catch up with Terezi. 

Vriska makes her way quietly down the winding staircase to her lusus. Her bloodpusher races. She just needs to drop the food off and leave, and everything will be fine. She can do this. She can survive another day. 

She doesn’t have a choice, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was super fun to work on! stick around for the companion chapter intermission 1. 
> 
> a note about the structure of this work: each main chapter will be a memory, and it will be uploaded at the same time as its companion intermission.


	3. intermission 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Terezi reflects on what she just saw.

Oh. 

You don’t remember the end of that memory. It must not be yours. It must be Vriska’s. Not your Vriska, of course, since she Isn’t Dead, but another, less fortunate one. 

You were so young. Four and a half sweeps, maybe? It wasn’t your first introduction to violence - you’re Alternian, after all - but the first time you had committed it. The first time the blood was on your hands. And there was so much of it. 

You’re used to it, of course. To be Alternian is to be immersed in a violent world. But that doesn’t make it okay. You used to love the brutal justice system of your planet, used to be so willing to perpetrate its cruelties. So willing you nearly killed Vriska. So willing you actually did. You killed her. You took her life. You m-

You’re getting off topic. 

Vriska was right. You hadn’t needed strategy at all. You just needed her. In one deft move, she stole the upper hand from your opponents - she is the Thief of Light, after all. You think over each and every move you take, in excruciating fashion. You can’t do a thing without pondering each and every choice and its outcome. But Vriska just jumps in and hopes for the best. You envy her in that sense. 

You hadn’t realized Vriska had taken the corpses from your first battle. You hadn’t yet known at all that she had to feed the spider. Every victory was overshadowed by the horrors she had to commit to survive. 

…

Well, your Vriska wasn’t there, only the echoing memory of another. 

You move on. Maybe the next bubble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stay tuned for future updates! thanks for reading!


End file.
